Fort Lauderdale Critical Mass leader arrested

A Wilton Manors cycling activist is facing charges following a confrontation with police after the latest "Critical Mass" bicycle ride in Fort Lauderdale.

A Wilton Manors cycling activist is facing charges following a confrontation with police after the latest "Critical Mass" bicycle ride in Fort Lauderdale.

Emily Miller, Sun Sentinel

It was supposed to be a "triumphant return" to the bridge that almost killed him, said friend Stuart Nelson, 59, of Wilton Manors.

But instead, Raymond Harold Strack, 55, was "forced to the ground" and cuffed five minutes after his ride began, Nelson said.

Strack was leading the Fort Lauderdale Critical Mass ride Friday night when he was arrested and charged with disobeying an officer and resisting arrest.

Nelson and about 800 other bicyclists were traveling west on Oakland Park Boulevard when Strack joined Nelson at the front of the group six to eight feet behind a Fort Lauderdale police sergeant on a motorcycle, Nelson said.

As the group reached the drawbridge, the sergeant set the speed at 3 mph, Nelson said.

Strack rode along the right side of the sergeant, complaining to her that she was going too slowly, Nelson said. The sergeant then moved her motorcycle over, pinning Strack between the motorcycle and the curb, Nelson said.

"It was alarming to me," Nelson said.

Strack braked and pedalled back behind the unidentified sergeant before riding to the left side of her — this time questioning what she was doing.

"He was saying, 'What the hell are you doing? … You almost killed me,'" Nelson said.

An officer on a bicycle then came from behind and grabbed Strack's shirt, dragging Strack off his bicycle, Nelson said. Officers then forced Strack to the ground and cuffed him, Nelson said.

Joshua Beatty, 45, of Plantation, said he also saw the sergeant turn her motorcycle into Strack "forcing him to almost crash."

"When people ride bikes uphill we all fall into a certain speed and rhythm," Beatty said in a Facebook message. "I can ride a bike at 3 mph uphill, most cannot. When she slowed to this pace and several people behind us were yelling at her to speed up, Ray, who was now considered ride leader, came up to tell her as much, and she rode her motorcycle into him."

Fort Lauderdale police did not respond to a request for comment.

The arrest took place on the same bridge where Strack was hit by a car and injured just six months prior, Nelson said. He said "everyone was shouting" at the officer, warning him of Strack's injured back.

Strack "was shouting that he wasn't resisting," Nelson said.

Following his release from jail on a $100 bond, Strack was upset, Nelson said.